Introduction
Ranking Dungeons will return to North America this Monday with the Fixed Leaders, Ideal Tournament. This tournament will force players to use Light Ideal 
as a leader but can bring any sub.
This gives the illusion of a Fixed Team, but heavily favours those who have deep Monster Boxes as it places a heavy emphasis on Skill Boosts to have Fujin 
ready in time.
To compensate for this, the dungeon is only 5 floors long which means Combos are heavily rewarded which means a lucky Skyfall will result in a significantly higher score.
On the bright side, the cutoff for a Crown is 7%.
Just be aware that the Forced Colour Skyfall + Orb Refresh Strategy no longer works for this Ranking. Due to this, our cutoff will be lower compared to JP to the point where it may be challenging to predict the final value.
Video commentary
–video coming soon–
155,552 Clear with no FUA
—
Score breakdown
In Ranking Dungeons, players are scored based on the following:
- Each Combo is worth 5,000 points
- Each second remaining is worth 500 points
- Hitting 40 Million damage is 10,000 points
- Each active used to kill a floor (no combo made) is -5,000 points
Due to the fact that the Ideal Tournament is 5 floors, each Combo is worth pursuing:
5,000/5 = 1,000 points per combo.
Of course there will be some animation time, but assuming you can match an additional combo within a 1.5s, it is worth pursuing. Furthermore, setting up Cascades to raise the chance of Skyfalls are worthwhile.
Light Ideal
Light Ideal is a Rainbow Leader who ideally wants to match all 6 elements for maximum damage. As such, players should built a team that covers all 5 colours along with incorporating Guard Break 
for the chance at 400 Matching Bonus points.
Notable dungeon mechanics
Despite the fact that the dungeon is only 5 floors long, it is riddled with numerous nuances that will require specific counters to overcome. Full dungeon info can be found HERE.
- Skill Bind – Floor 1
- Resolve – Floor 2
- 2x Orb Movement Time – Floor 3
- Damage Absorb – Floor 4
- Full Board Clouds – Floor 5
Ideal Tournament |
||
Floor |
HP / Typing |
Notes |
| 1 | 25m  |
Skill Bind Attack – Bring 3 SBR (Leaders provide 2) |
| 2 | 40m  |
Resolve – Requires 5 Hearts for FUA |
| 3 | 45m  |
8c shield |
| 4 | 7.5m |
Damage Absorb – Fujin counters |
| 5 | 150m |
Full cloud board + semi-fixed board pattern for 8c
It is possible to memorize board but Cloud |
Team building
The two main hurdles within this Ranking Dungeon are Rainbow Coverage and enough Skill Boosts 
to have Fujin ready in time. Both Ideals only come with a single Skill Boost for a grand total of 2. Thus, if using Fujin (19 turn cooldown) as a sub, players need to bring 19-2-3=14 Skill Boosts in total.
With this in mind, Skill Boost cards such as Orpharian 
/
, Tengu 
, and Valeria 
are viable but bear in mind that players only require enough to have Fujin ready by Floor 4. Furthermore, players should look into “double dipping” into subs who bring Skill Boosts with unique colours/extra counters such as FUA . With this in mind, Horus 
and Lakshmi 
are great options for Guard Break /double SBR and FUA respectively.
For the most part, players should have sufficient damage due to Ideal’s triple 7 Combo 
outside of the final floor due to the 150 million HP. Thus, using Physical Killer Weapon Assists on a strong sub should result in enough damage.
Fujin alternatives
A Fujin-style active is incredibly valuable for this Ranking Dungeon as it allows for the easiest way to bypass floor 4. With that being said, Raizer 
is the best option as he has a 17 turn cooldown which lightens the Skill Boost requirement by 2. Lugh also works, but their -1 cooldown is offset by having 1 less Skill Boost.
On the other hand, it is possible to use a tri colour board (with no Light) such as Karin 
or Haku 
and pray no other element skyfalls into place. The three colours results in a lower ATK multiplier and the absence of Light prevents Ideal from dealing too much damage. To do this, players will need to bring subs with those respective colours who ideally have lower personal damage and those who will be hitting harder should be placed on the Left.
Another option is using the farmable Volsung 
to lower the ATK of the of Dragon and Attackers cards by 50%. If using this method, players cannot match more than 1 Dark Combo.
Ideal Ranking – SBR Boost Badge |
||||||
| Card |  |
 |
 |
– | – | |
| SA | – | |
|
– | – | – |
| Inherit | – | Wep |
– | – | – | – |
| Latent | – | |||||
This team composition relies on Volsung’s ability to provide -50% ATK to Dragon and Attackers. This enables Ideal to slide under the 5 million Damage Absorb provided only a single Dark combo is matched. This is less reliable compared to a Fujin but may be easier to achieve. Furthermore, by using less subs, there is less animation time which can slightly improve scores.
Ideal Ranking – 15% ATK Badge |
||||||
| Card | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| SA | – | |
|
|
|
– |
| Inherit | – |  |
Wep |
– |  |
– |
| Latent | – | |||||
Ideal Ranking – SB Badge |
||||||
| Card | |
 |
|
|
 |
|
| SA | – | |
|
– | – | – |
| Inherit | – | – | – | Wep |
– | – |
| Latent | – | |||||
The main rationale for using Zela as an FUA option is to capitalize on her triple 7 Combo along with a Physical Weapon Assist. This guarantees players can one shot the final floor due to colour and typing advantage.
Conclusion
The Ideal Ranking Tournament gives the illusion of a more level playing field due to the Fixed Leaders component, but heavily favours players with deep Monster Boxes as the dungeon is riddled with horrible mechanics.
Those who are able to bring sufficient Skill Boosts, a Fujin-style active, and Cloud Resist will be able to score significantly higher.
Let me know what you think about this Ranking Dungeon in the comments below.
Happy Puzzling!
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Mantastic Puzzle and Dragons 
Spanking, OwO
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Hubba hubba
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I wish this article had more uses of the word “ideal”. I count two uses, both “ideally”.
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Ideally I would have used it more
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Mantastic, your math is wrong. 19 – 2 – 3 = 14 skill boosts, not 15. Also, I recommend Keiji (non-awoken version) for the shuffle active because this is the only reshuffle that comes with a haste. This lowers the SB threshold and can help significantly. So, optimally, 19 – 2 (2 ideals) – 3 (3 floors) – 1 (haste) – 1 (SB badge) = 12 SB total from subs. This is much easier to pull off.
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Wow math is hard
Also, your suggestion about Keiji with Haste has been added in =)
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Hey Mantastic,
Thanks as always for providing great, informative content! Your posts have completely changed the way I play PAD and made it a much more fun experience overall. I know this is unrelated, but would you recommend rolling the current super godfest? Thanks for your help and hope you have a nice day!
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Just for information – there is a 15-turn fujin active : 4848 Justice Dragon God, Uesugi Kenshin
This could help 😀
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Word on reddit is that the board refresh trick was patched out a couple months ago.
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Thanks for the heads up! I noticed it midway through today and changed things accordingly
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GH just suspended the tournment until further notice.
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I just saw and all I can say is WOW
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Surprising they would completely yank the tournament, rather than just clarifying the rules. There were still 6 days left to go in I think.Plenty of time to readjust. Well, back to being bored 😦
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Ouch, that’s gonna really suck for those that stoned hard for this!
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At least people got stone refunds but rip all the lost card investments for refresh
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We get the tournament next week at least
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Ideally, in an ideal world, I would like the compensation be Ideal, and that would be very ideal.
And big thanks to you Mantastic for showing variety of ways to tackle this Ranking dungeon, for people who is blessed with Fujin actives, and the ones without!
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You are very welcome and hope you are ready for it returning next week!
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R. Mika has 3 sb covers b/g and has guard break.
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Great card for sure! Works similarly to Horus
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Thanks for your advice as always!
Wish I had a Zela or Horus! They seem like key cards. I’m sitting at 15.5% (with room to improve on time) with the following:
– Anubis – doubles as cloud and counter attack AS to deal with Zera
– Sheena – 7c SA w/ Phys killer equip
– Cronus w/ SB Equip and Phys killer latent – needed green /damage
– Volsung GB SA
Big thanks for the Volsung tip. It seems to be the only lineup where I can one shot every floor!
I have a Fujin but my SB sticks are whaledor/Tengu/ Ophar/Despharion, missing a decent fire sub with that setup.
Aiming to boost % a little to stay safe to get the black medal! Crowns seem to be out of reach at the moment, but I’ll bash on!
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Does the above advise still apply to the reboot?
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The reboot (assuming 2nd release) only took away refresh which I removed from the article
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Zela is mostly a big damage stick to kill the final floor. Other triple 7c things with the right wep assist can do it too
Using volsung instead of Fujin lowers consistency (skyfalls) but lightens team building overall
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Does the reboot also take away plus combo count abilities. I just ran with three combo +2 inherit ability, and did the counting math myself mentally while running what was only five floors, and the summary page seems a full average 1.2 or so lower than my count, as if it is nerfed to deliberately quietly not count those combos, even though they seem to animate and display during the run. WTF. Is this a known Nerf?
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If u inherit “Nemain” onto “R. Mika” then u’ll have 2 turns haste by the time “Fujin” is needed
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or “Nemain” onto “Horus” wud actually work even better since he also comes with 2 skill bind resists, when “R. Mika” has none
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Main issue with using Haste is that it will add extra time to your clear
If possible, try and have enough SB
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